Jess Simson is ready for a step up in class at the Coast to Coast this weekend.
The Wanaka athlete won the two-day section last year and will aim to prove that was no fluke when she competes in the Longest Day on Saturday.
''All the hard work is behind me. I just have to wait now until the day,'' Simson said.
''I have no idea how the body will respond with a sudden burst of intensity. I guess I'll just take it as it comes.''
Last year, Simson was something of a dark horse, who decided to enter the two-day event on the spur of the moment.
Her dominant performance - she finished in 12hr 48min 11sec, with husband Hazen as the sole member of her support crew - certainly attracted attention.
Simson was ushered into adventure racing teams, representing New Zealand in events around the world. It was an incredible rise for someone who had only started thinking about multisport a year before the Coast to Coast.
If Simpson can take the next step and win the women's section of the Longest Day on Saturday, she will become the first athlete based in the South to complete the two-day and Longest Day double.
The first four Coast to Coast events were based on the two-day structure. Nelson's Stella Sweney won back-to-back open women's titles in 1983 and 1984. When the Longest Day section was introduced in 1987, Sweney became the first of three women (all from Nelson) to win open women's titles in each section.
Clair Parkes has been the only athlete to win the open women's two-day and Longest Day titles in consecutive years. She won the two-day title in 1988 and the Longest Day in 1989.
Sophie Hart is the only other athlete to achieve the rare double. She won the two-day title in 2006, and won the Longest Day in 2011 and again last year.
There is no doubt Simson's credentials stack up, making her a top prospect in the Speight's-sponsored Coast to Coast this year.
Simson's two-day performance last year was notable for the setting of two course records. Not only did her winning time establish a new standard for women, but she bettered Parkes' record time on the 33km mountain run by 2min 4sec.
Simson comes into the race on the back of an impressive 12 months of racing around the globe.
She has also displayed real guts and determination. This was most evident last August, when she broke her arm and badly injured a shoulder in a mountain bike crash during a race in Canada. Just 10 days later, she contested the six-day Trans Rockies mountain race in Colorado, in which she finished third, competing with her arm in a cast.
Top athletes joining Simson in the Longest Day field include two-time champion Elina Ussher (Nelson), 2010 two-day champion Joanna Williams (Wanaka), Emily Wilson (Wanaka) and Louise Mark (Waitakere).
The facts
Age: 29
Lives/trains: Wanaka
Career highlights: Won open women's two-day section of 2013 Coast to Coast, setting records for overall time (12hr 48min 11sec) and 33km mountain run (3hr 39min 59sec); member of teams that finished second in Godzone and third in Wenzhou Adventure Race, China; first open woman in Wellington's Crazy Man multisport race, in record time; first open woman in Augusta Adventure Race, Western Australia; member of New Zealand adventure racing team that finished second in Brazil's Rocky Man Rio de Janiero.
